Sunday, August 31, 2014

The basic strategy of the US government, as explained to Red Cloud in 1871, was for "the Great Father to put war-houses all through the Indian country." The idea was to make the Yankee soldiers highly visible to tribes for deterrent effect, and it "demoralizes them more than anything else except money and whiskey." Sherman's genocidal policy was learned by his young Spanish attaché, Valeriano Weyler, who practiced it on Cubans in the 1890s.

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
"Unsurpassed Valor, Courage and Devotion to Liberty"
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"

Government Policy of Genocide

"The surprise attack on the [Indian] village was total war. In such encounters women and children were nearly always present. They mingled with the fighting men, often participated in the fighting, and in the confusion and excitement were difficult to identify as noncombatants. In engagement after engagement women and children fell victim to army bullets or were cast upon a hostile country, often in winter, without food or shelter.

Total war raised disturbing moral questions, not only for the eastern humanitarians who shrilly protested military butchery, but for the army as well. Some officers openly acknowledged the surprise attack to be indiscriminate killing. "The confessed aim was to exterminate everyone," concluded Colonel de Trobriand, "for this is the only advantage of making the expedition; if extermination were not achieved, just another burden would be added – prisoners."

But what of the morality of a strategy aimed at finding and destroying Indian villages where women and children would unquestionably be present and suffer death or injury? Whether, as General Sherman contended, such warfare is in the end more humane because it is more speedily and definitely ended may be argued. The significant point is that Sherman's strategy for the conquest of the Indians was as moral, or immoral, as his march across Georgia . . .

Humanitarians, appalled by the killing of women and children, scored the army for practicing extermination. Some pronouncements of Sherman, Sheridan, and others sound like exterminationism . . . [and] Extermination – a later generation would call it genocide – is the systematic obliteration of a whole people.

Many officers believed that extinction was the Indian's preordained fate . . . [rather] it was an impulse to civilize the Indian that dominated military attitudes as it dominated public sentiment and government policy – and that belies the charge that the United States pursued a policy of genocide.

[General George Crook] turned to the very tribe against which his operations were directed [for Indian allies and discovered] the psychological impact of the enemy finding his own people arrayed against him. {Crook said in 1886:] "Nothing breaks them up like turning their own people against them . . . [and it has a] broader and more enduring aim – their disintegration."

(Frontier Regulars: The US Army and the Indian, 1866-1891, Robert M. Utley, Macmillan Publishing, 1971, pp. 52-55)

Ivy Hill Cemetery in Smithfield has almost 70 Confederate Veterans in it. All but a couple of their graves have Iron Crosses or small aluminum crosses on them. It appears that someone went in last night and knocked over 17 of the Iron Crosses and broke several of their stakes off in the process. I was called and met the cemetery director up there to survey the damage. We got some more assistance from the cemetery directors and my Camp and put the unbroken ones back in place and took out the others for repair.

A police report was filed by the director and he said the police told him that they considered it a hate crime. I hope they catch the miscreants especially if they go back to finish the job.

Lacking the foresight to discern William T. Sherman's particular view of political liberty and representative government, the American South pursued a more perfect Union 1861 without his permission and thus brought upon itself banishment as criminals who should forfeit their property to those more appreciative of his master's kindness and dispensations. The North was, in his eyes, "beyond all question, right in our lawful cause . . . "

Bernhard Thuersam, ChairmanNorth Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission"Unsurpassed Valor, Courage and Devotion to Liberty"www.ncwbts150.com"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"

Wiping the South Out of National Existence

Headquarters, Department of Tennessee, January 1, 1863, Major R. M. Sawyer, AAG Army of Tennessee, Huntsville:

"Dear Sawyer---In my former letter I have answered all your questions save one, and that relates to the treatment of inhabitants known, or suspected to be, hostile or "secesh." The war which prevails in our land is essentially a war of races. The Southern people entered into a clear compact of government, but still maintained a species of separate interests, history and prejudices. These latter became stronger and stronger, till they have led to war, which has developed the fruits of the bitterest kind. We of the North are, beyond all question, right in our lawful cause . . . Now, the question arises, should we treat as absolute enemies all in the South who differ with us in opinions or prejudices – [and] kill or banish them? Or should we give them time to think and gradually change their conduct so as to conform to the new order of things which is slowly and gradually creeping into their country?

When men take arms to resist our rightful authority, we are compelled to use force because all reason and argument ceases when arms are resorted to. If the people, or any of them, keep up a correspondence with parties in hostility, they are spies, and can be punished with death or minor punishment. These are well established principles of war, and the people of the South having appealed to war, are barred from appealing to our Constitution, which they have practically and publicly defied. They have appealed to war and must abide its rules and laws.

The United States, as a belligerent party claiming right in the soil as the ultimate sovereign, have a right to change the population, and it may be and it, both politic and best, that we should do so in certain districts. When the inhabitants persist too long in hostility, it may be both politic and right that we should banish them and appropriate their lands to a more loyal and useful population. No man would deny that the United States would be benefited by dispossessing a single prejudiced, hard-headed and disloyal planter and substitute in his place a dozen or more patient, industrious, good families, even if they be of foreign birth. It is all idle nonsense for these Southern planters to say that they made the South, that they own it, and that they can do as they please---even to break up our government, and to shut up the natural avenues of trade, intercourse and commerce.

We know, and they know if they are intelligent beings, that, as compared with the whole world they are but as five millions are to one thousand millions -- that they did not create the land -- that their only title to its use and enjoyment is the deed of the United States, and if they appeal to war they hold their all by a very insecure tenure. For my part, I believe that this war is the result of false political doctrine, for which we are all as a people responsible, viz: That any and every people has a right to self-government . . . In this belief, while I assert for our Government the highest military prerogatives, I am willing to bear in patience that political nonsense of . . . State Rights, freedom of conscience, freedom of press, and other such trash as have deluded the Southern people into war, anarchy, bloodshed, and the foulest crimes that have disgraced any time or any people.

I would advise the commanding officers at Huntsville and such other towns as are occupied by our troops, to assemble the inhabitants and explain to them these plain, self-evident propositions, and tell them that it is for them now to say whether they and their children shall inherit their share. The Government of the United States has in North Alabama any and all rights which they choose to enforce in war -- to take their lives, their homes, their lands, their everything . . . and war is simply power unrestrained by constitution or compact. If they want eternal warfare, well and good; we will accept the issue and dispossess them, and put our friends in possession. Many. many people, with less pertinacity than the South, have been wiped out of national existence.

To those who submit to the rightful law and authority, all gentleness and forbearance; but to the petulant and persistent secessionists, why, death is mercy, and the quicker he or she is disposed of the better. Satan and the rebellious saints of heaven were allowed a continuance of existence in hell merely to swell their just punishment."

W.T. Sherman, Major General Commanding

(Reminiscences of Public Men in Alabama, William Garrett, Plantation Printing Company's Press, 1872, pp. 486-488)

Saturday, August 30, 2014

So going after Confederate flags, monuments, statues & symbols were not enough for liberal yankees & the minorities they have brainwashed with 150 years of continued Reconstruction & counting. Now the yankees who work at Oak Ridge Tennessee want to change the accents of native Southerners who work there & live in the area.

It would seem that since those yankees now live & work in the South it is they who do not fit in & should do some changing. When I served in the military all that I ever tried to do was my duty & to mind my own business. However, busy body, meddling yankees are not content to do the same & live & let live. They try to tell you how they did everything up nawth & why everyone else should do the same.

They are forever on what they view as their God given right to change everyone & everything into their own image. Perhaps, their mentality is why America has been in one war after another for the past 150 years, they cannot leave other people alone to live their lives as they choose to do.

In the movie Braveheart the English king said, "the only thing wrong with Scotland is that its full of Scots." Today's yankee translation is, "the only thing wrong with the South is that its full of Southerners." But, liberal yankees just cannot imagine or figure out why they are hated even though its self-inflicted.

This might come as a shock to yankees but, you are not always right & others are not always wrong.

I thank with a grateful heart my precious new Confederate friends Elaine and Doug Collings who surprised me with a subscription to the wonderful "Confederate Veteran" magazine. A moment ago I stole the time and managed to read just a little bit in the "Confederate Veteran" July/August issue and I began reading the Report of R. Michael Givens, the Commander-In-Chief of the CIC@SCF.org . His essay is a marvelous "lalapalooza" of an article entitled "THE TRUTH." And does that guy tell it! He begins by quoting George Orwell: "During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."

With those words Givens informed me that I would not just like, but would value what I was about to read.

I was greatly intrigued when I read Givens' statement, "Marxian revolution is Jacobin, as are many forms of contemporary political criticism," He continued, "The revolution we, the SCV, are engaged in is akin to the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He added that our enemies are "invested in the total transformation of society into a victim state." Cogently connecting the dots from the present right back to the past, he then clearly defines our present situation: "The enemies of the South are undeniably waging a Jacobin revolution" [Emphasis added].

His recognition of the Marxian machinations rates a hurrah. He is well aware who tainted historical truth—who taught out and out lies to generations of Americans and who remains the hidden causative factor in America's present chaos. Givens' and the Sons decision to take up arms in the sea of trouble, so to speak, appears to indicate this is not to be a mere "defense," but also an "attack!"

Givens declares that the members of the SCV "are seriously at war for the truthful recognition of our forefathers' deeds" and that the War is a serious war for the minds and hearts of Americans. He stated, "It is for this reason that I have "instituted what some have called the most important steps the SCV has taken since the inception of our revered organization in 1896."

He is referring to a two part program of the SCV's which includes the transformation of the CONFEDERATE VETERAN magazine into an "educational journal with the purpose of presenting essays designed to increase the knowledge of the truthful events leading up to and during the War for Southern Independence and how they affect us today and our children in the future."

Translated, the good Commander is saying that now the Sons are going to fight in earnest for the PRINCIPLES of our Confederate family members and their leaders. The Sons are now totally dedicating themselves to the fight for TRUTH! The battle is begun! The true motives that caused the South to secede –the principles—go far, far beyond the slavery that the Jacobin-convinced folks have fastened on it –and used as brainwash. The hatred sown against our beloved Battle flag is another of the clever propaganda techniques making it absolutely necessary that the enemies of truth receive their comeuppance.

I am greatly anticipating reading the Commander's essay in its entirety. For now I say Hurrah and Hurrah again!

And while I wait to read, I am ruminating over the horror that The Victors of the War of Northern Aggression have tried to make us all think like Yankees, act like Yankees and worst of all--talk just like Yankees—telling us that we sound stupid with our Southern accents—that only stupid folks hold on to worn out memories of a north that did the South wrong and a flag that only a Simon Legree could be proud of! (They seem to have conveniently forgotten that Harriet Beecher Stowe's Simon was, just like them, a Yankee—and that for the years in its beginning the nation was governed by men speaking with beautiful Southern dialects. And they forget that the renowned public speaker, Winston Churchill said that in his opinion the best speech in the world included the "melody of the South, " and that the most beautiful speech in the world was that of an educated Southern lady.)

"The thirtieth anniversary of Lee's surrender (April 9, 1865) finds the character of the vanquished General a model to which all may refer with approval. "His modesty was his highest virtue," said a learned critic. Gen. Winfield Scott, commander of the United States armies, under whom Lee served in Mexico, said, "He was the best soldier I ever saw in the field."

When he surrendered the remnant of his army, which had been invincible so many years, Gen. Meade, in conversation with him, asked how many men he had at Petersburg, when his lines were broken, and Lee replied "Forty thousand." Meade said, "I am amazed, and could not believe it were it not you who said it." [Grant's strength was at least 110,000 men]

When terms of capitulation were agreed upon, and the officer who had gone to take an inventory of Lee's army, reported to Gen. Grant, stating that there were 8,000 men for duty, 120 cannon, etc., Grant refused to permit the firing of any salute of victory. In every way he showed his appreciation of the heroism and long persistence of Gen. Lee.

In a tribute to his character, Rev. Dr. Henry M. Field, who was reared in the Berkshire Hills of New England, a born abolitionist, but who venerates the memory of his "Black Mammy" as do Southerners, visited Lexington, Va., and concludes a tribute as follows:

"As I took a last look at the recumbent statue, I observed that its base bore no epitaph; no words of praise were carved upon the stone. Only above it on the wall was the name "Robert Edward Lee," with the two dates, "Born January 19, 1807, Died October 12, 1870."

That is all, but it is enough, for any eulogy would but detract from the spell of that single name: "One of the few, the immortal names, That were not born to die."

Friday, August 29, 2014

As many as six peace initiatives occurred before and during the war, nearly all emanating from the South and ending in failure due to Northern Republican intransigence. "[Lincoln] offered us nothing but unconditional surrender," said Vice President Alexander Stephens on his return from the Hampton Roads Peace Conference of 3 February 1865, calling the meeting "fruitless and inadequate."

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
"Unsurpassed Valor, Courage and Devotion to Liberty"
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"

"Let Us Alone and Peace Will Come of Itself"

"Lincoln was quietly sponsoring a peace initiative of his own [in July 1864 when he] sent Col. James F. Jaquess, a Methodist minister [of an Illinois Regiment] . . . and [writer] James R. Gilmore . . . on a mission to Richmond. Gilmore and Jaquess had a political motive to help Lincoln's faltering bid for reelection.

They wanted to prove that the Confederate's peace overtures were really concocted to embarrass Lincoln's government, to throw upon it the odium of continuing the war and thus secure the triumph of the "peace-traitors" in the November election.

With a personal note from Lincoln to General Grant, the two travelers crossed the battles lines at City Point, Virginia and entered Richmond . . . On Sunday evening, July 17, Jaquess and Gilmore encountered President [Jefferson] Davis, "a spare, thin featured man with iron gray hair and beard and a clear gray eye full of life and vigor," as Gilmore later described him.

"Our people want peace," Jaquess told Davis. "We have come to ask how it can be brought about."

In a very simple way," responded Davis. "Withdraw your armies from our territory, and peace will come of itself. We do not seek to subjugate you. We are not waging an offensive war . . . Let us alone and peace will come at once."

"But we cannot let you alone as long as you repudiate the Union. That is one thing the Northern people will not surrender."

"I know. You would deny to us the one thing you exact for yourselves – the right of self- government," Davis retorted. "You have sown so much bitterness at the South, you have put such an ocean of blood between the two sections, that I despair of seeing nay harmony in my time. Our children may forget this war, but we cannot."

"We are both Christian men," the minister said, "Can you, as a Christian man, leave untried any means that may lead to peace?"

"No, I cannot," said Davis. "I desire peace as much as you do. I deplore bloodshed as much as you do; but I feel that no one drop of the blood shed in this war is upon my hands – I can look up to my God and say this."

"I tried all in my power to avert this war. I saw it coming, and for twelve years I worked night and day to prevent it but could not. The North was mad and blind; it would not let us govern ourselves, and so the war came . . . It is with your own people you should labor [to end the war]. It is they who desolate our homes, burn our wheat fields, break the wheels of our wagons carrying away our women and children and destroy supplies meant for our sick and wounded. At your door lies all the misery and crime of this war – and it is a fearful, fearful account."

"And slavery, you say, is no longer an element in the contest?" Gilmore asked.

"No, it is not," Davis replied. " . . . You have already emancipated two million of our slaves – and if you will take care of them, you may emancipate the rest . . . you many emancipate every Negro in the Confederacy but we will be free! We will govern ourselves. We will do it if we have to see every Southern plantation sacked, and every Southern city in flames."

As the interview ended, [Davis] said: "Say to Mr. Lincoln from me, that I shall at any time be pleased to receive proposals for peace on the basis of our independence. It will be useless to approach me with any other."

(The Dark Intrigue, The True Story of a Civil War Conspiracy, Frank van der Linden, Fulcrum Publishing, 2007, pp. 145-148)

After the fall of his government, Jefferson Davis only asked of his captors a fair trial on the merits of his case. This he was denied after being held in close confinement and torture for two years, his tormentors "vaunted their clemency in not executing their victim."

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
"Unsurpassed Valor, Courage and Devotion to Liberty"
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"

No Sacrificing Convictions to Expediency

"The policy of Reconstruction devised by the victors of the North, was that the men of the Confederacy should pursue no vocation until a pardon had been asked of the President of the United States and granted by him. Our men considered it a form instituted merely for their humiliation, and as such complied with it as the means of feeding their helpless families, already spent with hardships they had endured.

Necessitas non habet legem is a maxim acceded to by mankind, and [Jefferson Davis] felt that the men who asked pardon did it for a holy and legitimate end. My husband, even in his letters from prison, combated the idea of our people expatriating themselves, and since they could not en masse move out of the country . . . they must do the only thing left for them, try to forget in toil and the care of their families the misery which had settled over them and their people.

Throughout this period Mr. Davis had endeavored to preserve silence about everything political, though letters came by hundreds asking his opinion on all political subjects. As he had not asked pardon for an offence he had not committed, he was disenfranchised, and as he could not be held responsible for acts in which he was forbidden by law to participate, his opinion, if given, was perfunctory. So far, however, from being wounded by his disenfranchisement, he felt rather proud that Congress had testified to the steady faith he had kept with his own people.

He had not changed his beliefs in the least degree . . . So to the end, he who had served his country in tented field, and in the halls of legislation, and merited and received the acclaim of soldiers and the esteem of statesmen and legislators throughout the United States, kept the dignified tenor of his way, unheeding the sectional clamor when his own conscience approved.

His asking for pardon as the leader of the Confederacy would have been more significant than the petition of one who had held a less high position, and he would not sacrifice his convictions to expediency, even in seeming.

The people of Mississippi, kind and trusting as of old to the man they had honored with their confidence, wished Mr. Davis to allow his name to be used for the Senate. They said: "The franchise is yours here, and the Congress can but refuse you admission, and your exclusion will be a test question."

Mr. Davis responded: "I remained in prison two years and hoped in vain for a trial, and now scenes of insult and violence, producing alienation between the sections, would be the only result of attempting another test. I am too old to serve you as I once did, and too much enfeebled by suffering to maintain your cause."

Republican leaders bent upon pushing the South to war effectively scuttled the Crittenden compromise plan as they feared a national referendum would welcome peaceful compromise. Before and throughout the war, efforts to avoid and end the bloodshed came almost entirely from the South.

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
"Unsurpassed Valor, Courage and Devotion to Liberty"
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"

The Core of the Anti-Republican Argument

"Thurlow Weed had been predicting since November [1860] that if the Republicans could make the Union rather than slavery the central issue of the [sectional] crisis, a united North would rally behind him. He . . . did not hesitate to urge Lincoln to take advantage of the sudden outburst of patriotic fervor. From New York he told the president-elect, "We shall have a United north – a condition about which I have been filled with solicitude."

[But] the imminence of war stirred a desperation for peace . . . and conciliationist leaders launched another offensive, spearheaded once more by Senators Crittenden and [Stephen] Douglas. Despite Republican opposition . . . the encouragement they had had been receiving across the North and Upper South convinced them that Northern public sentiment was behind compromise, particularly the Crittenden plan.

With that support in mind, the two senators issued a joint letter assuring concerned Southerners that their rights could be secured in the Union. On January 3, citing numerous reports of massive public sympathy for a peaceful resolution to the crisis, Crittenden asked the Senate to refer his amendments to the people, to be decided upon in national convention. He also sought to attract Republican support by adding two propositions drawn from Douglas's failed proposal: a national ban on black voting and officeholding, and federal subsidization of black colonization to Africa.

[Douglas] charged the [uncompromising] Republicans with "attempt[ing] to manufacture partisan capital out of a question involving the peace and safety of the country." Worse, they refused to help resolve the horrific crisis even though it was their own actions that had caused it . . . [and attacked them] for being naïve ideologues: for all their talk of upholding the Constitution and enforcing the laws, he stormed, they had to deal with the basic fact that "the revolution is complete."

"In my opinion South Carolina has no right to secede," he declared, "but she has done it." The question now was not how to prevent disunion but how to reverse it – by force of arms or by a peaceful resolution of sectional differences? Here Douglas reached the core of the anti-Republican argument.

"Are we prepared in our hearts for war with our own brethren and kindred?" he demanded. "I confess I am not . . . I will not meditate war, nor tolerate the idea, until every effort at peaceful adjustment has been exhausted . . . I am for peace to save the Union."

Thursday, August 28, 2014

With all the places anything Confederate comes under attack, Confederate, flags, monuments, statues, cemeteries, etc. We need to respond by comparing those things in colonial America to those same things & parallels as those in the South 1861 – 1865 because, they were & are. If the excuse of slavery by a few is all it takes to get Confederate Flags & the rest of it removed from places like the chapel & tomb of Gen. Lee at Washington & Lee University. Then why are the symbols of colonial America not attacked? I suspect that after the Confederate ones are erased they will be.

And this is why, President George Washington & Martha owned slaves, why isn`t this period of history considered racist & offensive as well? Why not remove all Revolutionary War Flags as America had slaves in every colony then as well? Some Northern States still had slaves in 1860 – 1865 until congress freed them, well after the war. Gen. Grants excuse for still having slaves was: good help is hard to find." I imagine Southern planters felt the same way about their slaves.

So, why is it alright to honor & revere the first 80 years of America`s history, people & symbols when it was a mirror image of those things that are now considered bad in the South? Doing away with Confederate flags because 5% or less of the Southern population owned slaves makes as little sense as refusing to let colonial period flags fly at the grave, monument, statues etc. of the founding fathers of America.

There is not one difference between the two time periods & people both allowed & had slaves. Were this not so the founding fathers would have included in the Declaration of Independence or U.S. Constitution that all slaves were immediately free. However, they did not & for the same reasons as the South did not in the 1860`s.

When defending the South remember to use this comparison of the South to colonial America. Ask reporters, teachers & everyone else to please explain why one is good & the other bad as both allowed slavery. You will baffle them every time as there is no difference.

In light of the issues at Washington Lee University, I feel it is important to let the membership know who I appointed to the position of Chief of Heritage Operations. Mr. Ben Jones, currently from Virginia, was a former US Congressman from the state of Georgia. His expertise in dealing with high profile situations is one of the many reasons he was chosen. His diplomatic skills will prove to be invaluable in this position.

On many occasions he has proven that he loves his Southern heritage by the fights he has already participated in. One of the most recent that many may remember is when he took on Warner Brothers after they announced they would remove the Confederate Battle Flag off the
General Lee, a car he repaired in the Dukes of Hazard. Yes, Mr. Jones is none other than "Cooter" in the hit TV series that still captivates audiences through out the world. He won that battle, as he has many, and brought awareness to the history of the flag, as well as the Southern people. I hope you will join with him as he guides us through the future heritage issues.

Deo Vindice!

Charles Kelly Barrow
Commander-in-Chief
Sons of Confederate Veterans

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I am proud to announce a powerful new 250-page softcover book with citation, using over 140 sources that are listed in a bibliography. There are 56 sample pages on www.BonnieBluePublishing.com and a PDF file of sample pages that can be saved and emailed.

Now you will know why Abraham Lincoln insisted that the war was about preserving the Union. He had to preserve the Union or the Northern economy would be annihilated because its success was based on manufacturing and shipping for the South. Without the South, the North was dead, bankrupt, millions unemployed, etc., and that's why Mr. Lincoln started his war.

I also prove, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the North did not go to war to end slavery or free the slaves.

For example, if the North had gone to war to free the slaves, it would have started by passing a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery since there were more slave states in the Union (8) than in the Confederacy (7) when the war started.

The Northern Congress did the opposite. It overwhelmingly passed the Corwin Amendment leaving black people in slavery forever, even beyond the reach of Congress. This alone proves, unequivocally, that the North did not go to war to end slavery or free the slaves.

Monday, August 25, 2014

For those of you who are interested and were unable to attend the recently concluded reunion in Charleston, our annual Book of Reports has been made available to electronically. Just follow this link to get your copy:

Saturday, August 23, 2014

SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS ACCUSE UNIVERSITY OF "NARROW MINDED PREJUDICE"

"The New Bigots"

A recent event at Washington and Lee University has underscored the growing phenomenon of "South-bashing" in the media and in academia. At the behest of several young law students, that school's President made a decision to remove two St. Andrews Cross battle flags from the Lee Chapel on the campus. Lee Chapel is the burial place of Robert E. Lee, who led the Army of Northern Virginia. General Lee became President of what was then Washington College after the War Between the States and is generally credited with saving the school. The Chapel is a beloved and honored place to the more than 65 million Americans who are descended from those who fought for the South in that conflict.

The law students, who call themselves "The Committee", delivered an ultimatum to President Kenneth Ruscio threatening civil disobedience unless certain demands were met. One of those demands was the removal of Confederate symbols from the Chapel, saying that the Christian Cross flags made them feel "unwelcome". On July 8th, Ruscio announced that the flags would be removed from the Lee Chapel. We cannot fathom why anyone would attend a school named after Robert E. Lee and then say they were offended by the St. Andrews Cross flag. Nor we cannot fathom how anyone could take them seriously and cave in to their threats. But in the current climate of 'South bashing', such a radical act as this seems to be accepted as some sort of litmus test for the "politically correct police".

It appears that those who have a very simplistic view of American history have decided that the 150th anniversary of The Civil War is the right time to demonize the Southern culture, to intensify their vilification of Confederate heritage, and to continue to act as if their actions are some sort of moral crusade.

We who are of Confederate heritage honor our ancestors for their sacrifice, their perseverance and their astonishing courage against overwhelming odds. These men were our family, our kinfolks, and their blood runs in our veins. But the new bigots of political correctness are exhibiting the same kind of narrow minded prejudice and knee-jerk bias that has always been the enemy of brotherhood and understanding.

This latest example is the breaking point for us. Our patience with this new McCarthyism is exhausted. These mean spirited attacks upon us come from the same sad place as do all racial, religious, and regional prejudices. They are rooted in an ignorance combined with a sense of superiority.

Over 50 years ago, that courageous Southerner Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "I have a dream that someday on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to dine together at the table of brotherhood." And that has happened. We have done that for decades now in the South, in great part because Dr. King did not qualify that dream or put asterisks on it. He did not say that we would dine together in brotherhood only if we dishonored our ancestors or if our family could routinely be called bigots, traitors, and racists. He was a far better and wiser man than that. He meant that we would dine together by accepting our past as it is and that we would understand each other by our shared culture of work and weather and food and music and memory. That way we could strive together to heal the wounds of the past and thus build a proud and loving South, where folks are judged only by the content of their characters. Slavery was not the sin of the South, but of the Nation. Chattel slavery existed throughout every colony and state for almost two centuries. Slavery was funded mainly by the Northern banks. The greatest profits went to the North. The North built the slave ships and manned them. The cotton also went North, to the vast textile mills in New England. The North's complicity in prolonging and profiting from slavery is one of the best kept secrets of American history. The work of the slaves helped to build America, both North and South. And yet the South has long been the scapegoat of these attacks from academia and the media.

The South is the fastest growing economic region in our nation. African-Americans are returning to the South in record numbers, finding a more traditional way of life here and according to many, better race relations.

It is long past the time for the new bigots of political correctness to get over their condescending sanctimony and to enter into the real world of brotherhood and fellowship. And it is time they understand that insulting our heritage is not the way to build bridges of progress.

Ben JonesChief of Heritage OperationsSons of Confederate Veterans

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From Our President

August 2014
Dear Civil War Preservationist,

On the first day of the 151st anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, the Civil War Trust announced one of the most momentous preservation opportunities in the history of the organization—a $5.5 million national fundraising campaign to acquire the period home where Gen. Robert E. Lee made his headquarters during the battle. The 4.14-acre property on Seminary Ridge that the Trust hopes to purchase also represents the bloodiest unprotected portion of the Gettysburg Battlefield.

Operated as a museum since 1921, Lee's Headquarters was passed over for inclusion in Gettysburg National Military Park. Today, a small hotel operates on the site, and when the owners decided to cease operations, they chose to work with the Trust to preserve it. If we did not move quickly, current zoning would permit a new owner to pursue a host of intense development options that would loom over the battlefield.

Making this historic announcement, and declaring that we will ensure that the land will one day be the property of the American people, was a highlight of my preservation career. If we are able to raise the necessary funds—$1.1 million—we will work toward restoring this hallowed ground to its wartime appearance. Imagine the incredible transformation from commercial real estate to battlefield park! With your support, we can make it a reality.

Secretary of the Interior Accepts Transfer of 285 Acres at Gaines' Mill

On July 10, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell attended a ceremony on Virginia's Gaines' Mill Battlefield to accept the transfer of 285 acres from the Civil War Trust into Richmond National Battlefield Park.

The Civil War Trust applauds the U.S. House Appropriations Committee for including $8.9 million for the Civil War Battlefield Preservation Program in its Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.

Explore Our Award-Winning Magazine

Praise continues to pour in for Hallowed Ground, the Trust's quarterly membership magazine—a sixth-straight Grand Award in the Apex Awards for Publication Excellence! Read the latest features and browse back issues on our new hub page.

National Teacher Institute Draws Rave Reviews

More than 130 educators gathered in Atlanta, Ga., July 117-20 for the Trust's 2014 National Teacher Institute to share their passion for bringing the past alive in the classroom. The techniques and methods imparted over the weekend will reach 15,000 students next school year!

Save Hallowed Ground While Shopping

Support the Civil War Trust every time you shop online with AmazonSmile. Visit smile.amazon.com, enter the Civil War Trust and start shopping. Amazon will donate .5% of the price of eligible purchases to the Civil War Trust.

August Civil War Battles

Expand your knowledge of the Civil War by learning more about some of the Civil War battles that occurred in the month of August. Access our history articles, photos, maps, and links for the battles listed below.